“…”

Shu Nian looked at their chat history again, feeling like two people who didn’t know how to chat properly had gotten together and produced something both laughable and pathetic.

Shu Nian thought he might be too tired. Although she found it a bit silly, she didn’t comment on his words: [It’s late, let’s go to sleep.]

Afterward, Shu Nian exited the chat window and happened to notice that Lin Qiqi had sent her a WeChat message. She clicked to read it.

Lin Qiqi: [???]

Lin Qiqi: [I just realized you didn’t reply to me earlier.]

Lin Qiqi: [Why didn’t you respond to me?]

Shu Nian scrolled up and discovered that apart from their recent New Year greetings, the last message was from when she went to Xie Ruhe’s house to record songs when Lin Qiqi had sent her a message.

At that time, Shu Nian felt awkward and didn’t have time to reply. Later, when she had free time, there was no message notification, so she forgot about it.

Shu Nian felt a bit apologetic and briefly explained the situation to her.

Lin Qiqi didn’t bring up the matter again: [By the way, I want to go to an audition in a few days. But I’m too scared to go alone. Would you like to come with me?]

Shu Nian: [Audition?]

Lin Qiqi: [Yes, I saw on Weibo that a web drama is recruiting new actors, and I want to give it a try.]

Shu Nian: [Do you want to switch to being on-screen?]

Lin Qiqi: [It’s not that I want to switch to being on screen, it’s just that I’ll take the opportunity if it comes. Otherwise, it’s tough, and there’s not much money. I think my appearance isn’t bad, so I can give it a try.]

Lin Qiqi: [You too, you’re not ugly. Let’s go together.]

Shu Nian: [I’m not suitable.]

Lin Qiqi: [What do you mean not suitable? Just try it, it doesn’t cost anything.]

Shu Nian still refused: [Really, no thanks. Sorry. Find someone else to go with you.]

Lin Qiqi didn’t persuade her further: [Alright.]

Shu Nian could vaguely sense that Lin Qiqi was a bit unhappy, but she didn’t take it to heart.

Their relationship wasn’t close, not even ordinary friends. Although it wasn’t nice to think this way, Shu Nian still worried there might be some safety issues.

Moreover, she was truly only interested in voice acting.

The next day at noon, Deng Qingyu called, asking Shu Nian to come over to have a holiday meal with them. Shu Nian already had plans and told the truth: “I want to visit Dad.”

Deng Qingyu was silent for a moment on the other end of the line, then said: “I’ll go with you.”

Shu Nian shook her head: “No need, I just want to talk to him for a bit.”

Deng Qingyu asked: “Will you come over in the evening?”

Shu Nian hesitated but still said: “I’d better not. I’ll come over another time.”

Deng Qingyu sighed, not insisting: “Alright, remember to eat.”

Shu Nian made an affirmative sound and said goodbye.

Shu Nian’s father, Shu Gaolin, and Deng Qingyu divorced when she had just started middle school. Afterward, Shu Nian always lived with Deng Qingyu. But compared to her mother, Shu Nian preferred her father and loved sticking close to him since she was little.

There were many things she would only talk about when Shu Gaolin came home.

From a young age, Deng Qingyu was very strict with her, not allowing her to do many things. Much of Shu Nian’s confidence came from Shu Gaolin, feeling that whatever he said was always right.

Even if her mother thought she had done something wrong, as long as she did what her father had told her, Shu Nian, like a devoted fan, would never think she had done anything wrong.

But this confidence collapsed when she was a college freshman.

Shu Gaolin was a firefighter who sacrificed himself to save people during a disaster five years ago. At that time, Shu Nian had just started university. Because of this devastating news, she lost a lot of weight and became quiet and depressed.

Her emotions were in turmoil and she remained downcast for quite a while before finally pulling herself together. Although grief-stricken, she also felt pride and honor for what her father had done.

Later, when Shu Nian was a junior in college, Deng Qingyu remarried.

She married a man who was also divorced and had a child, named Wang Hao. Wang Hao’s child was ten years younger than Shu Nian, boy.

Shu Nian didn’t oppose Deng Qingyu’s decision, only feeling that everyone would have their own life. Her mother had been single for so many years because of her, and finally meeting a suitable person was naturally something to be happy about.

That was a new family, and they would also have children of their own in the future.

Because of this thought, Shu Nian didn’t like going to Deng Qingyu’s place.

She would only feel that she was redundant and probably would make Uncle Wang Hao uncomfortable too.

Shu Gaolin was buried in the Ruchuan City Martyrs’ Cemetery.

Shu Nian found her way to the location easily and talked to him for a while. She told him what had happened recently, what made her happy, and what made her unhappy; she shared everything with him without holding anything back.

Time passed imperceptibly.

“I forgot to tell you. Dad, Happy New Year!” Shu Nian exhaled a warm breath, her eyes curving into a smile. “I always have a feeling that many good things will happen this year.”

“Don’t you think so too?” Shu Nian reached out to touch the photo on the tombstone. “Anyway, I feel that even if this feeling is false, you will help me make it true.”

“By the way, Mom asked me to bring a boyfriend home for her to see.” Shu Nian said, “I told her I’d wait until I’m better, then find someone good-looking. But actually, I don’t want to date anymore.”

Shu Nian wrinkled her nose and said glumly: “It’s not fun at all.”

“And good-looking ones aren’t so easy to find.”

After resting for a few days, Shu Nian’s cold got a bit better.

In a little over a month, the Spring Festival would arrive, and many dubbing directors wanted to complete their progress during this time. Many dubbing teams were working overtime to catch up, and Shu Nian also received calls from several directors.

She stopped being lazy and began spending days and nights in the recording studio again, working herself to exhaustion.

Half a month passed this way.

On the 20th, Shu Nian arrived at the recording studio in the city center according to the address Li Qing had given her.

Except for secondary female roles that were completely dubbed by voice actors, the rest were done by the actors themselves.

Due to problems at the filming location, there was too much background noise, causing some of the original audio to be unusable. The actors who came this time were here to record those unusable scenes. If all goes well, it could be completed in one or two days.

Because of the schedules of several main actors, Li Qing decided to record them separately.

After entering the studio, Shu Nian finally received the script.

There were no scenes for her today. With nothing to do, Shu Nian took out a pen to underline her lines and tried to understand the character’s state of mind.

Not many people had arrived; most were standing outside. Only one woman was in the recording room.

Shu Nian thought she looked familiar and, after thinking about it, quickly remembered.

It was the currently popular actress, Ke Yiqing.

Shu Nian rarely saw celebrities, so she couldn’t help but look a few more times.

In her impression, Ke Yiqing’s style had always leaned towards trendy and sexy, with heavy makeup, long eyeliner, and a sharp, seductive gaze when looking at people. Because of her appearance, most descriptions of her were four words: “beautiful but venomous.”

At the moment, Ke Yiqing seemed to be without makeup, with only a thin layer of lip gloss on her lips. She wore clunky glasses, and her long hair was tied up, making her look particularly refreshing.

It was quite different from her usual image, and Shu Nian almost didn’t recognize her.

Ke Yiqing was in character, very professional, and obedient.

Li Qing felt that the effect of one of her lines wasn’t very good and made her record it over and over again. She didn’t get annoyed and patiently followed Li Qing’s instructions.

There was a lip-syncing device placed nearby. Shu Nian stopped watching her dub and walked over. There was a time code at the bottom of the screen; she could match the time code on the script to find the corresponding position and prepare her work in advance.

This could save time and improve efficiency.

After a while, several more people arrived.

They were probably actors, and they knew each other. But they might not be famous, as Shu Nian hadn’t seen them before. They greeted the director, took the scripts, and sat down nearby.

Shu Nian politely greeted them and then continued to lip-sync with the screen.

After recording half of Ke Yiqing’s scenes, the director told her to take a break and switched to another person in the recording booth. She picked up water and took several sips, greeted the few actors nearby, and then found a place to sit down, listlessly playing with her phone.

It happened to be next to where Shu Nian was sitting.

Shu Nian couldn’t help but glance at her a few more times.

Ke Yiqing seemed to be in a bad mood, her eyes drooping. Her features were extremely attractive; even with a sad face, she was excessively beautiful. She sighed and suddenly noticed Shu Nian beside her, raising her eyebrows.

“How did a middle school student get in here?”

After a moment, Shu Nian realized she was talking about her: “I’m twenty-three.”

“Hmm?” Ke Yiqing was very surprised and moved closer. “You’re that old already?”

It was probably because she was short that the other person thought she was young.

Shu Nian gave a muffled affirmative sound.

Ke Yiqing seemed very bored and continued to make conversation: “Little sister, have you ever been in a relationship?”

Shu Nian put down the script in her hand and nodded: “Yes.”

“How did you get together?” Ke Yiqing became spirited, with a strangely humble, advice-seeking feeling. “Did you chase them or did they chase you?”

Shu Nian was very honest: “They chased me.”

Hearing this, Ke Yiqing instantly lost interest: “Oh, then we have nothing in common.”

“…” Shu Nian looked at her and guessed, “Are you pursuing someone?”

As soon as these words were spoken, Ke Yiqing seemed to have hit a sore spot and became excited: “How is that possible? Me chasing someone? Looking like this, do I need to chase anyone?”

“…”

“I didn’t want to say these things originally.” Ke Yiqing adjusted her glasses, her expression becoming serious. “You know Li Sheng, right?”

Shu Nian thought for a moment and shook her head: “No.”

“…” Ke Yiqing’s expression froze, unable to believe she didn’t recognize Li Sheng.

But thinking it might be because of her young age, Ke Yiqing simply switched to a recently popular young idol: “Then what about Xu Zeyuan? Do you know Xu Zeyuan? He’s been chasing me for a long time, but apart from his face, his singing is terrible. I can’t stand it.”

Shu Nian agreed: “Indeed, it’s not very good.”

Ke Yiqing was caught off guard by her serious expression, coughed a few times, and felt she had met an interesting character: “And then there’s A’He, the A’He who never shows his face. He even called yesterday asking me to spend his birthday with him.”

Shu Nian froze.

Ke Yiqing continued on her own: “But you know what? There must be a reason why he doesn’t show his face.”

“…”

“He’s truly unbearably ugly.” Ke Yiqing sighed heavily. “See him once and want to vomit, see him twice and want to vomit more, see him three times and I directly—”

Before she could finish, Ke Yiqing suddenly noticed Shu Nian’s expression. She blinked abruptly: “Have you seen A’He?”

Shu Nian hesitantly nodded: “Yes.”

Ke Yiqing paused, not the least bit embarrassed: “Maybe you don’t think he’s ugly, but everyone’s aesthetics are different. You know what I mean, little sister?”

Seeing that Shu Nian’s expression still showed skepticism.

Ke Yiqing’s expression became a bit unnatural, and she changed her statement: “Actually, it’s not to the point of wanting to vomit…”